Intelligent mine devices and method for operating same

ABSTRACT

An intelligent mine device includes a detection unit configured to detect an approach of a target object. The device includes an analysis processing unit configured to radio-communicate with the target object to perform identification of friend or foe against the target object. The device a blasting unit configured to blast the intelligent mine device when the analysis processing unit identifies the target object as the foe.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2012-0097128, filed on Sep. 3, 2012, which is hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a mine device, and more particularly, to intelligent mine devices capable of identifying friend or foe and blasting on a group basis and a method operating the same.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Typical mines do not have a capability to identify target objects such as enemies, tanks and the like and provide only the functionality of blasting in an individual position unit. Thus, even though a lot of target objects access at once, the mines is blasted against a specific target object only and thus there are many cases where an intended purpose of the mines cannot be achieved effectively.

In addition, until now, in relation to the placing and arming of mines and the removal of mines, information about buried points and clearance points of the mines had been fully relied on only manpower, maps of a minefield, and mine detection equipments in its confirmation and management. Therefore, there is the difficulty in terms of efficient and systematic management of the mines, and furthermore the removal of the mines by the human may often bring a loss of life.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the above, the present invention provides intelligent mine devices capable of not only detecting the location of target objects by using the Earth's magnetic field, but also providing their own buried positions so that they can be removed efficiently without casualties, and a method for operating the same.

Further, the present invention provides intelligent mine device capable of detecting targets using the Earth's magnetic field and performing a wireless communication with the target objects to achieve the identification of friend or foe, and a method for operating the same.

Further, the present invention provides intelligent mine devices capable of blasting individually as target objects approach, as well as blasting between mines grouped sequentially and continuously, thereby efficiently removing the target objects, and a method for operating the same.

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an intelligent mine device, which includes: a detection unit configured to detect an approach of a target object; an analysis processing unit configured to radio-communicate with the target object to perform identification of friend or foe against the target object; and a blasting unit configured to blast the intelligent mine device when the analysis processing unit identifies the target object as the foe.

In the exemplary embodiment, the detection unit comprises a magnetic field sensor that detects the approach of the target object via the Earth' magnetic field.

In the exemplary embodiment, the device includes: a storage unit that stores group information about intelligent mine devices that are grouped, wherein the blasting unit is further configured to generate a blasting instruction for the blasting of the intelligent mine devices that are grouped and provide the blasting instruction to the intelligent mine devices that are grouped through a radio communication in order to blast the intelligent mine devices that are grouped.

In the exemplary embodiment, the device includes: a grouping unit configured to radio-communicate with at least one or more intelligent mine devices within a predefined radius to generate the group information about the intelligent mine device that are grouped as the intelligent mine device is initialized.

In the exemplary embodiment, the blasting unit blasts the intelligent mine devices that are grouped in a sequential or simultaneous manner depending on the blasting instruction.

In the exemplary embodiment, the blasting unit is further configured to transmit the blasting instruction to the intelligent mine devices that are grouped, and wherein the blasting instruction contains information on a blasting time.

In the exemplary embodiment, the device includes: a message generating unit configured to generate an identification message to make a request for an entry of a cryptogram as the target object approaches, the identification message being sent to the target object, wherein the analysis processing unit is further configured to receive a reply to the identification message for a predetermined period of time and compare information in the received reply and a pre-stored cryptogram to identify whether the target object is a friend or foe.

In the exemplary embodiment, the device includes: a message generating unit configured to generate an identification message to make a request for an entry of a cryptogram as the target object approaches, the identification message being sent to the target object, wherein the analysis processing unit is further configured to identify whether the target object is a friend or foe depending on the presence or absence of a reply to the identification message for a predetermined period of time.

In accordance with another exemplary embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a method for operating intelligent mine devices, which includes: generating group information about neighboring intelligent mine devices within a predefined radius as the intelligent mine devices are initialized; detecting that a target object approaches; performing a radio communication with the target object to identify whether the target object is a friend or foe; and transmitting a blasting instruction to the intelligent mine devices in the group information in order to blast the intelligent mine devices in the group information when the target object is identified as the foe.

In the exemplary embodiment, the detecting that the target object approaches comprises detecting the approach of the target object via the Earth' magnetic field.

In the exemplary embodiment, the generating group information includes: radio-communicating with the intelligent mine devices within the predefined radius to generate the group information.

In the exemplary embodiment, the identifying whether the target object is a friend or foe includes: sending an identification message for identification of friend or foe to the target object using a radio communication; and performing the identification of friend or foe depending on a reply message to the identification message.

In the exemplary embodiment, the identifying whether the target object is a friend or foe includes: generating the identification message to make a request for a cryptogram to send the identification message to the target object; and upon receiving a reply message to the identification message for a predetermined period of time, comparing information in the received reply and a pre-stored cryptogram to identify whether the target object is a friend or foe.

In the exemplary embodiment, the identifying whether the target object is a friend or foe includes: initializing a predetermined count; increasing the count when the reply message is not received or the information in the reply message is not identical to the pre-stored cryptogram; retransmitting the identification message when the count is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value; and identifying the target object as the foe when the count is not less than or equal to the predetermined threshold value.

In the exemplary embodiment, the identifying whether the target object is a friend or foe includes: sending the identification message containing a request for performing a given operation to the target object; and performing the identification of friend or foe depending on the presence or absence of a reply message to the identification for a predetermined period of time.

In the exemplary embodiment, the performing the identification of friend or foe includes: initializing a predetermined count; increasing the count when the reply message is not received; retransmitting the identification message when the count is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value; and identifying the target object as the foe when the count is not less than or equal to the predetermined threshold value.

In the exemplary embodiment, the blasting the intelligent mine devices includes: blasting the intelligent mine devices in the group information in a simultaneous or continuous manner.

In the exemplary embodiment, the blasting the intelligent mine devices includes: blasting the intelligent mine devices in the group information in a simultaneous or continuous manner using the denotation instruction containing detonation time point.

As mentioned above, the intelligent mine devices of the embodiments of the present invention detects the approach of the target objects based on the Earth's magnetic field and performs a radio communication with the target objects to carry out the identification of friend or foe. Therefore, it is possible to detect the target objects within a sensing range even without a direct contact with the mine devices and to reduce the senseless casualties.

Further, the intelligent mine devices of the embodiment of the present invention provides continuous or simultaneous blasting capability depending on ally identification, which ensures to remove the target objects efficiently.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments given in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an intelligent mine device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating a process of operating the intelligent mine device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a process of a continuous or simultaneous blasting of the intelligent mine device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, the embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an intelligent mine device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The intelligent mine device includes a detection unit 102, a transceiver unit 104, a message generation unit 106, an analysis processing unit 108, a blasting unit 110, an initialization unit 112, a storage unit 114 and a power supplying unit 116.

The detection unit 102 detects the approach of target objects such as vehicles, tanks, persons, etc. via the Earth's magnetic field. Again, the detection unit 102 detects the approach of a target object using, for example, a magnetic field sensor.

The transceiver unit 104 is responsible for radio communicating with the target object or neighboring intelligent mine devices and, for example, includes RF (Radio Frequency) modules or chips, but is not limited thereto.

More specifically, the transceiver unit 104 sends an identification message used for identification of friend or foe through a radio communication to the target objects in order to receive a reply to the message and transmits a blasting instruction to the intelligent mine devices 100 that are grouped or receives a blasting instruction from the neighboring intelligent mine devices in the group. The reply from the target object and the blasting instruction from the neighboring intelligent mine devices is provided to the analysis processing unit 108.

The message generation unit 106 generates the identification message for identification friend or foe. The identification message is sent to the target object or the neighboring intelligent mine devices 100 through the transceiver unit 104. In this case, the identification message may contain information requesting an entry of a given cryptogram.

The analysis processing unit 108 identifies whether the target object is a friend or foe on the basis of the reply received through the transceiver unit 104, calculates the approach distance to the target object, and determines a detonation time point depending on the approach distance. The determined detonation time point is then provided to the blasting unit 110.

Further, in response to a blasting instruction from a neighboring intelligent mine device 100, the analysis processing unit 108 relays the blasting instruction to the blasting unit 110.

The identification of friend or foe relative to the target object by the analysis processing unit 108 will be discussed in detail below.

After the message generation unit 106 sends the identification message, the analysis processing unit 108 initializes an internal counter 108A (e.g., it sets the internal counter to zero) and waits for a reply to the identification message, i.e., a cryptogram. Upon receiving the cryptogram, the analysis processing unit 108 compares between the cryptogram and a pre-stored cryptogram and performs the identification of friend or foe relative to the target object. If the cryptogram is identical to the pre-stored cryptogram, the target object is identified as a friend; otherwise, the target object is identified as a foe. In the latter case, the analysis processing unit 108 generates the detonation time point and provides the same to the blasting unit 110.

Meanwhile, if the analysis processing unit 108 has not yet received any reply for a predetermined threshold period of time after sending the identification message, it allows the counter 108A to increase by an increment of “1”. Thereafter, the analysis processing unit 108 determines whether the count of the counter 108A is greater than or equal to a threshold value. As a result of the determination, if the count is greater than or equal to the threshold value, the analysis processing unit 108 identifies the target object as the foe, generates the detonation time point in accordance with the approach distance to the target object and provides the detonation time point to the blasting unit 110.

However, as a result of the determination, if the count is not greater than or equal to the threshold value, the analysis processing unit 108 requests to resend the identification message the message generation unit 106, which in turn, sends the identification message to the target object through the transceiver unit 104 again.

As set forth above, the embodiment of the present invention has described by way of example that the analysis processing unit 108 performs the identification of friend or foe through the comparison of the cryptogram received from the target object and the pre-stored cryptogram. Alternatively, it may be possible to design such that the analysis processing unit 108 resends the identification message up to predetermined times in the case where both of the cryptograms are not equal.

Further, while the embodiment of the present invention has utilized the cryptogram for the identification of friend or foe, it may also possible to send an identification message that requests an operation of a specific function such as a click of a given button or key and receive a reply thereto to perform the identification of friend or foe.

The blasting unit 110 detonates the primer of intelligent mine device 100 in synchronization with the detonation time point contained in the blasting instruction and blasts the intelligent mine device 100.

The initialization unit 112 performs the radio communication with at least one or more the intelligent mine devices that are distributed within a preset radius as the intelligent mine device 100 is initialized and groups the intelligent mine devices to generate group information through the grouping. The generated group information is then provided to the storage unit 114 for the storage thereof.

The storage unit 114 stores the group information about the intelligent mine devices 100. Here, the group information may either be generated via the initialization unit 112 or set in advance at the setting of the intelligent mine devices 10.

The blasting unit 110, upon receipt of the detonation time point from the analysis processing unit 108, generates the blasting instruction based on the group information stored in the storage unit 114 and transmits the blasting instruction to the intelligent mine devices 100 in the group.

Alternatively, the blasting instruction has a blasting time that has been fit in advance, and the blasting unit 110 of the intelligent mine device 100 denominates the primer of intelligent mine device 10 in synchronization with the blasting time to blast the intelligent mine device 100.

Consequently, the intelligent mine devices 100 in groups are blown up at the same time or sequentially or continuously.

Hereinafter, the operation of the intelligent mine device 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

First, when the intelligent mine device 100 is initialized, e.g., by a power-up or a reset, in an operation S200, it determines if a target object approaches through the use of the detection unit 102, in an operation S202.

As a result of the determination in the operation S202, if the target object approaches, the analysis processing unit 108 of the intelligent mine device 100 initializes the count T of the counter 108A used for identification of friend or foe, in an operation S204. Next, the message generation unit 106 generates an identification message for identification of friend or foe, in an operation S206 and sends the identification message to the target object, in an operation S208. Here, the identification message may be a message to make a request for the input of a given cryptogram.

Subsequently, the analysis processing unit 108 determines whether a reply to the identification message is received through the transceiver unit 104 from the target object for a predetermined period of time, in an operation S210.

As a result of the determination in the operation S210, when the cryptogram is not received, the analysis processing unit 108 increases the count T of the counter 108A by an increment of one (1), in an operation S212, and then determines whether the count T of the counter 108A is greater than or equal to a predetermined threshold value K, in an operation S214.

As a result of the determination in the operation S212, when the count T of the counter 108Aa is not greater than or equal to the predetermined threshold value K, the process returns to the operation S208 to repeat the above described operations by the analysis processing unit 108. That is, the analysis processing unit 108 resends the identification message through the transceiver 104 and the message generation unit 106 and performs the subsequent operations as described above.

Meanwhile, as a result of the determination in the operation S212, when the count T of the counter 108 a is greater than or equal to the predetermined threshold value K, the analysis processing unit 108 identifies the target object as a foe, generates a detonation time point and provides the detonation time point to the blasting unit 110, which in turn, detonates the primer of the intelligent mine device 10 to blast the intelligent mine device 10, in an operation S216.

Meanwhile, as a result of the determination in the operation S210, when the cryptogram is received, the analysis processing unit 108 compares the received cryptogram to a pre-stored cryptogram to verify whether the both cryptograms are same, in an operation S218.

As a result of the determination in the operation S218, when the received cryptogram and the pre-stored cryptogram are same, the analysis processing unit 108 identifies the target object as a friend, in an operation S220; otherwise, the process returns to the operation S216 to blast the intelligent mine device 10.

While the embodiment of the present invention has described to blast the intelligent mine device 10 when the received cryptogram is not same to the pre-stored cryptogram, it may also be possible to retransmit the identification message to the target object. In other words, the process goes to the operation S212 where the analysis processing unit 108 continues to subsequent operations, whereby the identification message can be retransmitted to the target object as many as predetermined times.

As described above, the embodiment of the present invention senses the approach of the target object based on the Earth's magnetic field and performs radio communication with the target object to achieve ally identification. Therefore, it is possible to detect the target object within a sensing range even without a direct contact with the mine device and to reduce the senseless casualties.

Hereinafter, the process of blasting the intelligent mine devices on a group basis will be described with reference to FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating a process of a continuous or simultaneous blasting of the intelligent mine device in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

As illustrated in FIG. 3, when the intelligent mine device 100 is reset or powered-up to enter the initialization state, in an operation S300, the initialization unit 112 of the intelligent mine device 10 performs a grouping of intelligent mine devices within a predefined radius through the radio communication with them and generates group information, which will then be stored in the storage unit 114, in an operation S302.

Next, the intelligent mine device 100 may identify the target object as the foe, in an operation S304, by performing the identification of friend or foe through the process as implemented in FIG. 2, and the blasting unit 110 then generates the blasting instruction, in an operation S306. In this case, the blasting unit 110 may set a blasting time for a sequential blasting in the blasting instruction or a blasting time for a simultaneous blasting in the blasting instruction.

The blasting instruction is transmitted to the intelligent mine devices 100 in coincidence with the group information, in an operation S308. In response to the blasting instruction, the blasting unit 110 of the intelligent mine devices 100 detonates the primer of the intelligent mine devices 10 in synchronization with the blasting time to blast the intelligent mine devices 10, in an operation S310.

As set forth above, the embodiments of the present invention enable the continuous or simultaneous blasting depending on the identification of friend or foe, which ensures to remove the target objects efficiently.

While the description of the present invention has been made to the exemplary embodiments, various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. The embodiment of the present invention is not limited thereto. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should be defined by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing embodiments. 

What is claimed is:
 1. An intelligent mine device comprising: a detection unit configured to detect an approach of a target object; an analysis processing unit configured to radio-communicate with the target object to perform identification of friend or foe against the target object; and a blasting unit configured to blast the intelligent mine device when the analysis processing unit identifies the target object as the foe.
 2. The intelligent mine device of claim 1, wherein the detection unit comprises a magnetic field sensor that detects the approach of the target object via the Earth' magnetic field.
 3. The intelligent mine device of claim 1, further comprising: a storage unit that stores group information about intelligent mine devices that are grouped, wherein the blasting unit is further configured to generate a blasting instruction for the blasting of the intelligent mine devices that are grouped and provide the blasting instruction to the intelligent mine devices that are grouped through a radio communication in order to blast the intelligent mine devices that are grouped.
 4. The intelligent mine device of claim 3, further comprising: a grouping unit configured to radio-communicate with at least one or more intelligent mine devices within a predefined radius to generate the group information about the intelligent mine device that are grouped as the intelligent mine device is initialized.
 5. The intelligent mine device of claim 2, wherein the blasting unit blasts the intelligent mine devices that are grouped in a sequential or simultaneous manner depending on the blasting instruction.
 6. The intelligent mine device of claim 5, wherein the blasting unit is further configured to transmit the blasting instruction to the intelligent mine devices that are grouped, and wherein the blasting instruction contains information on a blasting time.
 7. The intelligent mine device of claim 1, further comprising: a message generating unit configured to generate an identification message to make a request for an entry of a cryptogram as the target object approaches, the identification message being sent to the target object, wherein the analysis processing unit is further configured to receive a reply to the identification message for a predetermined period of time and compare information in the received reply and a pre-stored cryptogram to identify whether the target object is a friend or foe.
 8. The intelligent mine device of claim 1, further comprising: a message generating unit configured to generate an identification message to make a request for an entry of a cryptogram as the target object approaches, the identification message being sent to the target object, wherein the analysis processing unit is further configured to identify whether the target object is a friend or foe depending on the presence or absence of a reply to the identification message for a predetermined period of time.
 9. A method for operating intelligent mine devices, the method comprising: generating group information about neighboring intelligent mine devices within a predefined radius as the intelligent mine devices are initialized; detecting that a target object approaches; performing a radio communication with the target object to identify whether the target object is a friend or foe; and transmitting a blasting instruction to the intelligent mine devices in the group information in order to blast the intelligent mine devices in the group information when the target object is identified as the foe.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein said detecting that the target object approaches comprises detecting the approach of the target object via the Earth' magnetic field.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein said generating group information comprising: radio-communicating with the intelligent mine devices within the predefined radius to generate the group information.
 12. The method of claim 9, wherein said identifying whether the target object is a friend or foe comprising: sending an identification message for identification of friend or foe to the target object using a radio communication; and performing the identification of friend or foe depending on a reply message to the identification message.
 13. The method of claim 9, wherein said identifying whether the target object is a friend or foe comprising: generating the identification message to make a request for a cryptogram to send the identification message to the target object; and upon receiving a reply message to the identification message for a predetermined period of time, comparing information in the received reply and a pre-stored cryptogram to identify whether the target object is a friend or foe.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein said identifying whether the target object is a friend or foe comprising: initializing a predetermined count; increasing the count when the reply message is not received or the information in the reply message is not identical to the pre-stored cryptogram; retransmitting the identification message when the count is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value; and identifying the target object as the foe when the count is not less than or equal to the predetermined threshold value.
 15. The method of claim 9, wherein said identifying whether the target object is a friend or foe comprising: sending the identification message containing a request for performing a given operation to the target object; and performing the identification of friend or foe depending on the presence or absence of a reply message to the identification for a predetermined period of time.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein performing the identification of friend or foe comprising: initializing a predetermined count; increasing the count when the reply message is not received; retransmitting the identification message when the count is less than or equal to a predetermined threshold value; and identifying the target object as the foe when the count is not less than or equal to the predetermined threshold value.
 17. The method of claim 9, wherein said blasting the intelligent mine devices comprising: blasting the intelligent mine devices in the group information in a simultaneous or continuous manner.
 18. The method of claim 16, wherein said blasting the intelligent mine devices comprising: blasting the intelligent mine devices in the group information in a simultaneous or continuous manner using the denotation instruction containing detonation time point. 